New UK volleyball assistant coach Amaya Tillman was part of the same volleyball program as former UK star Madison Lilley in Kansas. (Larry Vaught Photo)
New Kentucky volleyball assistant coach Amaya Tillman earned All-American honors playing for Louisville and helped the Cardinals reach the Final Four her senior season. Since Tillman was from Kansas, she knew former UK star Madison Lilley, a Kansas native who led UK to the 2020 national championship and was named the nation’s best player.
“I played against Madison a lot, and we actually played for the same club but not on the same team, but for the same club since she was a couple years older than me,” Tillman said. “I played against her in practice when our teams would scrimmage.
“I always looked up to the way she played and how competitive of a player she was. We were never super close, but she was always someone that I could look up to, especially being in the Kansas City area.”
Tillman followed Lilley’s All-American career at Kentucky but never seriously considered playing at Kentucky. She didn’t even visit UK during her recruiting process even though UK coach Craig Skinner “definitely” reached out to her.
“I went on a bunch of visits. Louisville wasn’t even one of my last visits. It’s the only ACC school I visited. I thought I was going to go to Kansas. I wanted to commit there when I was younger,” Tillman said.
Instead, when Nebraska assistant coach Dani Busboom Kelly became the new head coach at Louisville, she did visit Louisville and liked it more than she anticipated.
“I still didn’t want to go to an ACC school but that conference wasn’t like it is now,” Tillman said. “She told me it was a hidden gem and I did really like it, so I went there and it was definitely the right decision for me but now I am very, very happy to be at Kentucky.”
